This was my first time at Sar-El even though I'd been to Israel once before. As late as one day before leaving, I seriously asked myself if I knew what I was doing. But, it was too late! I had already committed myself and deep down inside I wanted to go. I was met at Ben Gurion by two soldiers and one other newly arrived volunteer, Leon. We were taken by mini-van to our base Batzap 382. Later that evening we had an orientation in which one of the soldiers thanked us for coming. It turned out that Leon and myself shared a room in the barracks along with Morris an 82 yr old Sar-El veteran from Capetown South Africa. Morris had been at the base since July 4 and was not leaving until late Oct. Leon was staying until at least Nov. I was only staying for two weeks. My first full day, I questioned myself about what I had done- I thought that I made a big mistake. But slowly I adjusted and I learned from other volunteers that this was a common feeling.
Generally, the living conditions (austere) and the food (not bad) were as described in testimonials that I'd read. The work, re-wiring headsets, was not difficult but by days end I was tired, hot and sweaty. What made the experience special for me was the closeness of our group and the shared commitment that we had. I had an awful lot of laughs - Leon is the funniest individual that I've ever met. One night we had a pizza (kosher) party for Anne who was leaving to go back to England the next day. What a great time we had. It was a beautiful evening, we had Israeli music playing (courtesy of our madrichot Michal and Ravit) and some of the volunteers were dancing Israeli dances. We all just sat around and talked talked about Israel, politics and life in general. I remember being on the phone with my girlfriend back home and telling her how magical this night was. We were doing all this under the stars and we were in ISRAEL! I had to pinch myself to help me realize that I wasn't dreaming. I'll never forget the experience and the friends that I made at Sar-El. I'm already planning my next trip.
Mark Glowatz
NY, USA